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Leading the way, one salsa class at a time

Normally, any attempt to follow my partner's lead on the dance floor would result in an awkward struggle or, worse, battered toes. Now I know why.

"You know, you're a better leader than you are a follower," says dance instructor Danny Leong.

Instructor Danny Leong directs students in his same-sex dance class, which he began at Joy of Dance last fall. (Jan. 24, 2009) (CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR)

For the first time, I think I might actually be enjoying dancing – and formal dancing at that.

I'm a woman, and I've been leading a man around a sunlit dance floor for half an hour. Not easy when he's more than a foot taller than me, but somehow, it's more fun.

At Joy of Dance studio at Danforth and Broadview Aves., women are encouraged to take the lead, and men have permission to follow – even if they're following another man. It started last year, when the studio began offering same-sex salsa and ballroom classes.

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"In ballroom you need a leader and a follower," says Jennifer Jones, the studio's owner. "You need to have the two roles for that choreography to work."

She leans in to emphasize her next point.

"It's the roles that should be sacred, not the gender." Which is why I'm twirling my partner in a salsa spin, leading him into a turn and gently correcting his timing.

Since the mid-1990s, same-sex dancing has become a growing international subculture, but mainstream dance studios have largely been slow to catch on – Joy of Dance excluded. It's been featured at gay and lesbian sport events such as the EuroGames and the Gay Games. The first same-sex world championship was held in Sacramento, Calif., in 2005, put on by the World Federation of Same-Sex Dancing.

U.S. television series Dancing With the Stars jumped on the bandwagon last year, featuring a man-on-man tango (or "mango") between actor Steve Guttenberg and dancer Jonathan Roberts.

A rumour that Lance Bass would take a male partner on the show came to naught, however. And most international dance competitions and academies have continued to resist the trend.

Their reluctance is partly understandable. Much of the appeal of ballroom dance comes from its ability to take us back to an older time, where traditional gender roles were played out on the dance floor. And there's no denying salsa's macho undertones.

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"Competitions have limited it to be men and women, not even discussing it," says Jones. "They say, `That's not the way it's done.' That has to change."

Leong, 28, taught the first same-sex class the studio offered last fall.

"As a follower, you have to be aware, but not take charge," he explains, talking about the differences between roles. "The best part of same-sex dance is you can switch roles if you're advanced. They call it `stealing the move.' They do it in swing, but in salsa it's not common. Salsa is considered a macho dance.

"It's the same with ballroom – men have to be leaders, ladies have to be followers. But not any more. Society has changed."

Leong has been dancing since he was 6. "I didn't know dancing as a follower existed" for a man, he says.

Leong says he was first intrigued by so-called "Jack and Jack" dancing, in which two men dance together as part of competitive swing "Jack and Jill" competitions (though the pairing isn't explicitly gay). "Jill and Jill" dances are also common. In some same-sex dancing venues, the names Jack and Jill have been discarded entirely in favour of the gender-neutral "Pat and Chris."

Leong discovered same-sex dancing in Toronto's gay community – which still hosts a swing-dancing club called Swingin' Out – and he wanted to bring it to a dance studio. He suggested the classes to Jones, who embraced the idea.

Jones, a bubbly blond who greets almost every dance student personally, explains that she had always envisioned her studio as "more inclusive."

"In the ballroom industry there's a sacredness to the concept of men and women only dancing with each other. Why is that so sacred? To say that's how it's always been done is not good enough."

She says that in her classes, "nobody questions it, nobody asks, `What's going on?' That's the world I want to live in, where you don't have to question it."

The studio welcomes same-sex couples to every class already, but wanted to introduce same-sex classes, too.

"I think there's a group that would feel more comfortable in a same-sex class," says Jones.

One of those people is Lisa Ivens, 46, who dances in Leong's salsa class with her partner, Sylvia LaFontaine, 36. Ivens leads and Sylvia follows, an arrangement they say feels natural.

"Years ago, when I went to Arthur Murray (dance studio), they gave me a follower position because I'm a woman," she says. "I want to lead."

She says that while the studio welcomed same-sex couples, she felt awkward at its Friday-night socials, where every couple was straight. At Joy of Dance's socials, same-sex couples mingle on the dance floor with straight couples.

"I probably wouldn't be dancing as much" without the same-sex classes, Ivens says.

Although same-sex dancing specifically accommodates same-sex couples, it has had the added benefit of allowing straight dancers to experiment with different roles.

"If a female decides to take the leadership role, it's not necessarily attached to sexual orientation," Jones says. Some women simply make great leaders, she says.

Another added benefit: because women no longer are limited to the follower role, they don't have to wait to dance on the sidelines if there aren't enough men available, says Jones.

"Women are beginning to say, `I don't have to wait; I can take the lead.'"

Joy of Dance is at 95 Danforth Ave., third floor. Contact 416-406-3262 or joyofdance.ca

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